Adapting Equity-Focused Approaches to Address Workflow Challenges During COVID-19: Lessons for the Health Care Workforce

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted certain racial and ethnic groups due to systemic racism and poor governmental emergency responses. Health organizations and leaders worked strategically to pivot their workflows to meet the emerging needs of their patient population. In this perspective, three examples are shared of successful interventions that made workflow improvements to be efficient while ensuring excellent patient care during the pandemic and beyond. Lessons from the initiatives are ones that health professionals can advocate for and easily adopt to ensure that medical mistreatment and disparities for some patient populations do not continue to flourish.